Do you have free time and don’t know what to do?

It is known by everyone that Madrid is a city that abounds in cultural and historical richness and proof of this are all the monuments, museums, etc. that are scattered both in the capital and the rest of the province. All of the following have to be visited at least once in life and being a resident of Madrid you should take the opportunity.

Madrid is a very green city and, besides the world famous Retiro Park, is full of fields and gardens as beautiful as emblematic for the city. Below, we recommend two of them:

• Sabatini Gardens. It is located next to the Royal Palace and the Almudena Cathedral. This beautiful garden is located in the historic center of the city of Madrid. It follows a neoclassical style and proof of this are the geometric hedges that abound throughout the garden. It is undoubtedly one of the most wonderful places in Madrid.
• Botanical Garden. This quiet space with almost 300 years old has more than 30,000 species of plants and trees from all over the world. It is located next to Paseo del Prado and Glorieta de Atocha.

The capital also has a large number of museums apart from the famous Prado Museum, such as the Reina Sofia Museum, located in the old San Carlos hospital. If you go you can not forget to visit, among many paintings, the “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso as well as many other paintings by famous artists such as Dali or Miro. You can also visit the Sorolla Museum located where the Valencian painter Joaquin Sorolla lived in Madrid.

A few meters west of Plaza de España, we can find the Temple of Debod, a building of ancient Egypt. This was a gift from Egypt to Spain in 1968 for its collaboration in the salvage of the temples of Nubia. This building of approximately 2200 years old was inaugurated in 1972 and since then it is one of the most visited monuments of the capital.

If we leave the capital, about 55 kilometers to the northwest, we can find the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, a complex with more than 400 years of history and which in 1984 was declared a World Heritage Site. This complex has a royal palace, basilica, pantheon, library, school and monastery. It is a beautiful site located in San Lorenzo del Escorial. The monastery has a visit whose basic price is 12 € and a duration of about 2 hours. It is certainly a site to take into account.

If we talk about historical sites we can not forget the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso located in the Segovia town of El Real Sitio de San Ildefonso. This is located north of the Sierra de Guadarrama, and is located about 80 kilometers from Madrid. Its name comes from an old farm that the Hieronymite monks of the monastery of El Parral had in the vicinity. The basic price is 9 € and it is a visit of an hour and a half that is very worthwhile.